Certain kinds of .alpha.-substituted phenyl acetic acid ester derivatives have been disclosed in JP-A 60-54949 and DE2742065. However, each of these compounds has a substituent at the 3-position of the phenyl group, and no compounds having a substituent at the 2-position have been disclosed. JP-A 3-17052 and JP-A 3-157350 also disclose .alpha.-substituted phenylacetic acid ester derivatives. However, they only disclose 2-hydroxy-2-phenylacetic acid or its acetic acid ester as an intermediate or insecticide, and do not disclose its fungicidal activity at all.
JP-A 4-288045, JP-A 4-261147, WO93/15046, EP-A-498396, JP-A 3-169842, EP-A-532022, JP-A 7-17930, and EP-A-619301 also disclose related compounds.
The present invention is to provide a novel compound having potent fungicidal activity, a process for producing it, and an agricultural fungicide containing it as an active ingredient.